Charging beyond 90% daily

[ElectricIAC]

I think it’s time that I weigh in on this. As I typically have a long commute. I will typically start heat soaking the car about half an hour before I leave, at the same time I’ll allow the car to charge a couple of extra percent over the 90% on occasion and I have honestly yet to find the benefit in charging past 90% as regenerative braking is sharply decreased. Not worth it.

 

[I<3URANUS]

The car is a month old. I dont want to open a can of worms, but we really got bad advice from the S.A. I know at the end of the day it's my fault for not doing enough due diligence. We inquired about long range and we're made to believe we needed to order awd to get it. Feels stupid saying it out loud now. Luckily there's not much of an issue now that we did some tinkering with habits. Next go round we will be looking at LR Model Y or maybe a used X

What charge are you arriving at home with when you leave at 100%? I guess I just have a hard time understanding how 90% isn't enough to get you there and back for 100 miles.

 

[Turlejay]

What charge are you arriving at home with when you leave at 100%? I guess I just have a hard time understanding how 90% isn't enough to get you there and back for 100 miles.

So the first time she took the car we had it set to 85% left sentry on. She drives 51 miles to work and the car sits for 9 hours and she drives back. About half way or so home the car said she needed to reduce speed in order to reach destination and she panicked. Since then we re-educated ourselves and don't think there will be a problem now. That being said it's not just ordinary 100 miles. It's really cold here right now and she's on the Thruway at 75mph avg for the majority of those miles.

 

[I<3URANUS]

So the first time she took the car we had it set to 85% left sentry on. She drives 51 miles to work and the car sits for 9 hours and she drives back. About half way or so home the car said she needed to reduce speed in order to reach destination and she panicked. Since then we re-educated ourselves and don't think there will be a problem now. That being said it's not just ordinary 100 miles. It's really cold here right now and she's on the Thruway at 75mph avg for the majority of those miles.

Gotcha. I know the cold affects the range. Glad I don't have to deal with it. My wife takes my SR+ to work some days to keep miles off her car (85miles round trip) and I charge to 90 daily. She usually gets home with 50-45% she works 10hr days (4x10) I'm really surprised the cold effects it that much. We don't have many single digit days here (well, ever really) but she's driven it a few times below freezing (lower arrival% days) but nothing that would be of concern. Good luck to you.

 

[Turlejay]

Gotcha. I know the cold affects the range. Glad I don't have to deal with it. My wife takes my SR+ to work some days to keep miles off her car (85miles round trip) and I charge to 90 daily. She usually gets home with 50-45% she works 10hr days (4x10) I'm really surprised the cold effects it that much. We don't have many single digit days here (well, ever really) but she's driven it a few times below freezing (lower arrival% days) but nothing that would be of concern. Good luck to you.

Throw in needing to preheat too on top of that while unplugged. Can't wait till our 5 months of Warm (er) weather

 

[I<3URANUS]

Throw in needing to preheat too on top of that while unplugged. Can't wait till our 5 months of Warm (er) weather

Why preheat? The car will warm up quickly as you drive. That will keep you from wasting energy with the car just sitting there. (I mean, I get the appeal so don't get me wrong.)

 

[Turlejay]

Why preheat? The car will warm up quickly as you drive. That will keep you from wasting energy with the car just sitting there. (I mean, I get the appeal so don't get me wrong.)

I was under the impression that if the snowflake is there that whole chunk of battery is unavailable, therefore Preheating would be a better option.

 

[ElectricIAC]

Why preheat? The car will warm up quickly as you drive. That will keep you from wasting energy with the car just sitting there. (I mean, I get the appeal so don't get me wrong.)

Creature comfort. we’re not driving Samba’s here.

 

[pjferr]

Why preheat? The car will warm up quickly as you drive. That will keep you from wasting energy with the car just sitting there. (I mean, I get the appeal so don't get me wrong.)

If it's 19F or colder, you typically get the snowflake if its been parked outside for 8 hours and the battery is cold soaked. Doing a 15 minute preheat, warms the cabin, eliminates the snowflake and restores regen, making the return trip much more efficient. What really drove the importance of a warm battery home for me was on my latest long trip in well below freezing weather, I stopped at a supercharger and in the subsequent 60 minute drive home I got Summer like efficiency at highway speeds as the battery was fully heated up from Supercharging.

 

[Kenz]

People always want faster charging. In the winter slower may be better. You can reduce the charge speed so that it takes longer to charge overnight and that will help keep the battery warmer longer because it will be charging longer. Drop your level 2 charger down to 32KW or 24 or 16KW . Set the over night charge to 70 or 85% and then when you wake up in the morning raise the charge rate to 80 or 90% and turn on the preheating for the interior. This will warm the battery, increase the regen available and the car will be comfortable when you get in. By the time you shower, get dressed and make your coffee the car will be heated up and ready to go. At least for the trip in to work the car battery will be warm and it should get decent range. When leaving work preheat the car for 10-15 minutes so you have some regen and warm the battery a little. If range is an issue turn off sentry mode and the keep summon ready feature. Put the car in chill mode to reduce excessive acceleration. I would still inquire at work about getting access to a 120 or 240 outlet to charge in very cold weather. Many places are getting more receptive to putting in a EV charger for employees and customers now that EVs are getting more common. You might even direct them to the Tesla page on the web site where they provide 2 chargers free to businesses that let customers use them. The business pays for the install but the chargers are free. I would not charge to 100% especially on a regular basis. It is not good for the battery.

 

[Turlejay]

People always want faster charging. In the winter slower may be better. You can reduce the charge speed so that it takes longer to charge overnight and that will help keep the battery warmer longer because it will be charging longer. Drop your level 2 charger down to 32KW or 24 or 16KW . Set the over night charge to 70 or 85% and then when you wake up in the morning raise the charge rate to 80 or 90% and turn on the preheating for the interior. This will warm the battery, increase the regen available and the car will be comfortable when you get in. By the time you shower, get dressed and make your coffee the car will be heated up and ready to go. At least for the trip in to work the car battery will be warm and it should get decent range. When leaving work preheat the car for 10-15 minutes so you have some regen and warm the battery a little. If range is an issue turn off sentry mode and the keep summon ready feature. Put the car in chill mode to reduce excessive acceleration. I would still inquire at work about getting access to a 120 or 240 outlet to charge in very cold weather. Many places are getting more receptive to putting in a EV charger for employees and customers now that EVs are getting more common. You might even direct them to the Tesla page on the web site where they provide 2 chargers free to businesses that let customers use them. The business pays for the install but the chargers are free. I would not charge to 100% especially on a regular basis. It is not good for the battery.

All duly noted. I like the idea of slowing the charge down, haven't heard that one before. My wife is a teacher. She teaches at a start up charter school that shares a building with another school. If there's a 120 outlet on the premises outside, she either hasn't found it or hasn't looked. Assuming she does find one, how safe is it to leave the mobile connector completely exposed to the elements? It can white out up here in the blink of an eye. I've been using schedule departure to set the charging to complete at 545, she leaves at 630. I have a trigger on my phone to start the heater at 550 so the car is ready to go and warmed up. Today was the first try at it and everything went very smoothly. She even made a couple stops off the normal route and still made it home with plenty to spare. Next test will be sentry mode

 

[Kenz]

Since the car is only a month old I would go back to Tesla and ask about trading it in on a long range Model 3. You might find that the few thousand dollars difference (lost on the trade in) may be worth the peace of mind. It can't hurt to ask and see what the cost would be. You still have the increase in price of the long range vehicle to come up with. It might be worth it if you still have concerns. I would just say you made a mistake and really need more range. See how receptive they are. They might even have a loaner or a DEMO vehicle that you can get at a discount.

 

[Turlejay]

Since the car is only a month old I would still go back to Tesla and ask about trading it in on a long range Model 3.
You might find that the few thousand dollars difference may be worth the peace of mind. It can't hurt to ask and see what the cost would be.
It might surprise you.

I might make a call. We don't have a dealer anywhere near here. I wonder how long it would take. If we did get out of this we would want a Y though. Originally that's what we wanted but we didn't expect Tesla to actually make a deadline and needed a car. In the long run, it seems like it's going to work out just fine now that I have a better education

 

[ElectricIAC]

Why not a Y as a second (or third) vehicle?

 

[Turlejay]

Why not a Y as a second (or third) vehicle?

If money were no object, I'd have 2 Xs. We have a lease on an SUV that's up Aug 2021.

 

[toolman335]

My car battery does everything as expected, but if I preheat without it being plugged in it royally sucks life out of the battery.
What is a normal discharge rate if if you preheat for 30 minutes? Maybe you make up for it on this 50 mile commute, but for my 9 mile commute I think my car would consume 20+ miles of range in 30 minutes before I take off.
In single digit temps I consume 15 miles on the 9 mile commute. It doesn't make sense for me to preheat for 30 minutes. I do about 3 minutes to warm the cabin.

 

[Kenz]

Preheating to warm the battery is best done when plugged in after sitting over night. Using shore power to heat the battery.
It only takes a few minutes to heat the cabin. Generally 5 -15 minutes should be plenty.
If you're not plugged in 5 minutes to heat the cabin is fine.
Preheat the cabin as your making coffee to go and it will be ready before you are.

 

[Turlejay]

Preheating to warm the battery is best done when plugged in after sitting over night. Using shore power to heat the battery.
It only takes a few minutes to heat the cabin. Generally 5 -15 minutes should be plenty.
If you're not plugged in 5 minutes to heat the cabin is fine.
Preheat the cabin as your making coffee to go and it will be ready before you are.

Doesn't the cabin heat need to be on in order to warm the battery?

 

[holmgang]

Doesn't the cabin heat need to be on in order to warm the battery?

yes

model 3 does not have a discrete "preheat battery function", so asking the car to heat the cabin is one way of waking and warming the system.....

 

[toolman335]

It's one thing if you use shore power to heat up the car, but if I'm at work for 10 hours I don't understand how it makes sense to warm it up for 30 minutes before leaving. So many people do that and it doesn't make sense. That would use a lot of energy.